How to nest if/then/else statements into random list outputs?

I'm trying to create a system which picks randomly from a list, and then, depending on which string it picked, picks another random string from a seperate group, and then another one from there.

Basically, I'm trying to give it a bunch of paths and then, depending on what choice it makes, narrow the subsequent paths down two more times.

I've got the random code going, but I can't get it to accept if/then/else statements.

Here is my code. It works for its current purpose, which is generating one of those 4 letters randomly. But because it doesn't call a variable, it won't accept if/then/else statements. If I try to make a variable, it complains about being unable to convert the variable to Boolean, but if I define it as Boolean the entire code breaks.

package randomlist;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;
    
public class Randomlist {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub

        Random generate = new Random();
           String[] name = {"A", "B", "C", "D"};

           System.out.println(name[generate.nextInt(4)]);

String nesting =(name[generate.nextInt(4)]); 
if (nesting = "A") {
               Random generate = new Random();
           String[] name = {"E", "F", "G", "H"};
           }
           else if (nesting = "B") {
               Random generate = new Random();
           String[] name = {"I", "J", "K", "L"};
           }
    

        }
    }